In Hernando Tellez’s “Just Lather, That’s All,” the barber would have been a hero if he had killed Captain Torres since he would be killing one person to save many others, he would be sacrificing his own job,reputation and way of life to help others as well as proving his loyalty his people. To start, if the barber had killed the Captain he would be taking away one life to save countless innocent ones, “"Come to the school today at six o'clock." "The same thing as the other day?" I asked horrified. "It could be better," he replied. "What do you plan to do?" "I don't know yet. But we'll amuse ourselves." Once more he leaned back and closed his eyes. I approached him with the razor poised. "Do you plan to punish them all?" I ventured timidly. …show more content…
This quote proves that Captain Torres would be killing several rebels later that day and planned on continuing to hunt them down until they were all killed. If the barber had decided to kill him, he would be knocking out the leader of this mission and would therefore increase their chances of survival. Next, if the barber had decided to kill Captain Torres, it would have not only ended the captain’s life, it would have forced the barber to completely change his. When the barber is debating over what he should do, he thinks, “But what would I do with the body? Where would I hide it? I would have to flee, leaving all I have behind, and take refuge far away, far, far away”. If he had killed Captain Torres despite knowing the grave risk it is and how it would impact his own life, he truly would have been a hero. This is because he would be putting others before himself while knowing that this would ruin his job and reputation. He would also have to go into hiding which is another huge sacrifice
His client is Captain Torres, who is an evil man. The barber has been given the job of shaving his beard, and with the Captain sitting before him and a razor in his hand, the barber realizes how easy it would be to kill him. “I could cut his throat just so, zip! zip! I wouldn’t give him time to complain” (Tellez, 3). This develops the barber’s inner conflict as he is silently contemplating whether to simply shave him like a professional barber should, or kill him on the spot. The Captain’s fate is literally in the barber’s hands. This inner conflict is a result of his image, how he wants to be portrayed, because he is both a barber and a secret rebel. “My destiny depends on the edge of this razor” (3). Therefore, whatever he chooses ultimately results in how his future will unfold. If he kills the Captain, he could be seen as either a “murderer or hero” (3). If he doesn’t kill the Captain, he is letting the man go who is responsible for so many terrible things. After contemplating his choices and considering the consequences, he eventually solves his conflict by simply giving him a shave and letting Torres go. As a result, the barber indeed proves how one’s identity will result in how one’s future will
Dwight Lyman Moody has once said "Character is what you are in the dark," which is proposing that people hide who they truly are in lightness because they're afraid to let society know the real them. Society has become cruel and they force people to do things they don't want to, but at the same time, society can bring out the better side of you.
In the short story “Lather And Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber made the correct choice in letting captain Torres live, because the barber would have been killed, and isn’t a murderer, and loves being a barber. The barber made the correct decision, if he had killed the Captain the barber would have been killed. So it would not have helped anything, but had gotten The barber killed. In the barber’s mind “ what good could come of that? None, of course” (Tellez, 2). Letting Captain Torres live means that the barber will stay alive as well and continue sending in information about the captain's whereabouts. If the barber had decided to kill Torres it wouldn’t have solved anything but cause even more problems for both sides, like another
Furthermore, the Barber’s razor represents what he could have done with it to the Captain, depending on his morals. While he is consumed in his thoughts as he shaves the Captain, the Barber thinks “Murderer or hero? My destiny depends on the edge of this blade . . . You came to me for a shave. And I perform my work honourably” (Téllez 16). The Barber strongly believes that murdering Captain Torres with his razor goes against his honour and status as a professional barber. He does not want to think of himself as someone who abuses his power and harms someone for the sake of his own reputation. Subsequently, Captain Torres relies on his morals to aid him to make what he believes is the correct decision. While the Captain is getting a shave, he says “We got the main ones. We brought back some dead, and we’ve got some others still alive. But pretty soon they’ll all be dead . . . The town must have learned a lesson from what we did the other day” (Téllez 13). Captain Torres decided to kill all the rebels because he believes that the only way to teach people a lesson is to resort to violent tactics. His belief
Through many situations a character may be forced to encounter, the individual must be able to recognize evil. In “Lather and Nothing Else”, the barber acknowledges the evil in the captain as an executioner and immediately forms a strong hatred for him. While shaving the captain’s beard, the barber thinks to himself, “And an enemy under one’s roof imposes certain conditions” (Tellez). He already sees the captain through the perspective of an enemy even though he has done nothing to wrong him personally. The barber is forced into a situation in which he receives an executioner as a customer. He is able to recognize evil in an individual who often punishes and puts people to death, despite the fact that it is his duty. By receiving this man as a customer, the barber is forced into a challenging situation that he must overcome. It is crucial for him to acknowledge this evil in order to protect himself and others fr...
Despite their strong wills and actions, no man is without fear, and both displayed moments of cowardice. As the narrator shaves the face of the man who has caused him much strife and pain, he imagines ending his life, the simplicity tempting him to become like those he has despised, the murders and executions of the war. He knows to kill and maybe die for his cause would be noble; thinking many would consider him “the avenger of [their] people” (345), but he allows his fear to control him, and spares the man. Although holding moral belief is not a condemnable act, in this circumstance the man was talked down foremost by fear, then by moral, and so by definition this was an act of cowardice. Captain Torres was not able to dissuade his fears either, the entire circumstance was a result of his fears pushing him to behave foolishly. At the end of the story, he admits to knowledge of the barbers revolutionary position, and that his associates believed he would be killed in the barber shop. This goes to show that the Captain came into the shop to prove his superiority over the rebellious, fearing that those around him around would otherwise think of him as fearful. This is not a fear of mortality, but instead a fear of how other perceive him. He put himself in harm's way to momentarily settle his lack of self esteem, and that is a foolish act that could only be driven by fear and
If you had the chance to kill your greatest enemy, would you? Because In Lather and Nothing Else by Hernando Tellez, the barber has to answer that exact question-- on whether or not to kill a man who is responsible for the deaths on many fighting for his cause. In the end, the barber made the right decision not to kill Torres because it was not his job to kill him, but instead to shave him.
Every decision made affects people either negatively or positively. In the decision of killing Captain Torres or not, the barber had to think of everything that could happen if he was or wasn't to kill him. If he killed him, some people might be mad at him and want him dead even more than before. Although if he didn't, he would have to live the rest of his life not knowing if they would come and kill him before he had the chance to kill them. He was scared of being killed because he was part of a revolution and Captain Torres was responsible for killing the people involved. In the end, the barber decided that he saw himself not as a murderer but as a
In the story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez it shows you to make the choice you can best live with. By considering the character; the barber from “Lather and Nothing Else” it becomes clear that conflicts adversity can reveal who we truly really are.
“Lather And Nothing Else” by Hernando Téllez begins in a Latin American country at a small barber shop with the barber sharpening his straight razor when a man comes in. This man, Captain Torres, executed the rebels, which caused the barber to begin to shake. Once the barber finished sharpening his razor, he began to lather Captain Torres’s beard and shaving him. When he began shaving him, the barber began to internally debate whether or not to slit his throat with the razor. He thought about if his customers would trust him again, whether he would be able to live with himself, and whether or not it was worth the revenge he knew would come.
The barber didn’t know how people would respond to eliminating Torres either. He tried to figure out how he would be thought of if he killed the Captain. He says to himself, “The murderer of Captain Torres. He slit his throat by shaving him, what a cowardly thing to do! And others would say The avengers of our people. A name to remember!”. In order to face this moral dilemma, the barber uses the thoughts of other people's reactions to help him decide which is the moral thing to do. If the barber eliminates Captain Torres, he would be killing a murderer, but then he would become a murder himself! He would be just as bad as Torres if he killed an unarmed man. The other way he could respond which is by avoiding the problem in all and letting Torres leave unharmed, could be both negative and positive which makes the decision an even harder one. If he leaves Torres alone, then Torres would go out and kill many more people. But, the barber would not become a murderer himself and he would not have to flee into hiding. The barber thinks the best option is by avoiding the problem because he can not get passed the fact that he would be a
David Capuzzo recalled thinking, “If no one does anything, he’s going to die.” David pushed the homeless man up from the tracks, and others pulled him to safety. “I just jumped down,” he said. “I grabbed, like, his legs together and I stood up. This is a time-sensitive issue. I don’t know where the train is.” 3 minutes later, the train came, but everyone was safe. Everyone now looked up at David as a hero. I mean, he saved the homeless man’s life! This was very heroic of David at this time, to help the man, but David also had the personality. If David never had the right hero ethics, he would have never saved the homeless man. David wanted to help the homeless man free to safety, and David had the personality at the right time to go save
As the story continues, we learn that there is some sort fight between two sides: Torres’ side, and against them is the barber’s side, ‘the rebellion’. Throughout the story, the barber thinks that Torres believes he is on his side, which we learn is clearly not true by the last sentence. The barber has good morals, clearly cares about his side but isn’t willing to commit murder on behalf of them, even though it would be easy. “Damn him for
To be exact, it was Thursday September 10, 2015. It started off as any other day where I woke up at exactly 6:00am, as always. I gathered my supplies for the day, got myself ready and made sure to leave my cottage at precisely 7:10am, never earlier nor any later. This actually works out quite well as it allows me to get my breakfast at Wanda’s before the line gets too long as well as giving me enough time to walk to the university’s engineering building. It’s perfect. That morning, I left at around 7:40, where I proceeded to walk to my next class at the engineering building, arriving at around 8:00, where I had extra time to briefly skim over some material before my 8:45 class. My day proceeded as planned for the next two hours or so where I would attend my classes and accomplish what needed to be done. It wasn’t until the end of my second class of the day when the chaos began to
It was a normal afternoon after school when I returned to my house after a busy